Report That Shearer Almost Walked Out On Newcastle

This whole story is in the News Of The World – so we don’t know how much truth there is in their report today on Shearer almost walking out on Newcastle last week.

Alan Shearer – could still be appointed later this week

They say that with Ashley now seemingly more than desperate to get out of St James’ Park, Alan Shearer’s appointment will only be confirmed if a new financial structure is approved by the club’s bankers this week.

But they are saying a provisional agreement is in place for Shearer and his assistant Iain Dowie to both sign four-year contracts.

However, Newcastle’s bankers have insisted Ashley puts a new business plan in place, before they approve anything and that will include a staggering 50% reduction in Newcastle’s £40M overdraft, and a complete overhaul of a pay structure that has been allowed to spiral completely out of control.

Of the £74M wage bill – just for the players – we learn that 15 are on £50K a week and of them 7 are on £70K/week – if we say we are very annoyed at those figures – it’s an understatement.

Ashley is now said to be continuing talks with the club’s financiers this coming week, so there will be a number of rooms burning in the Newcastle mansion, if this is not all done at warp speed.

But we are being told that Shearer and Dowie were prepared to walk away from St James’ Park last week after an initial breakdown in talks – but we stress this is the NOTW – and this story could be made up – after all it is a Sunday.

Ashley said he was unable to provide any funds for players and the managerial duo said they could not do the job under those circumstances, but it seems that within hours Ashley returned to the talks after changing his mind and said he would give them a transfer kitty of up to £20M.

But many of the disgraced players would need to be moved out and we think those certainly include Owen – who is out of contract and players like Viduka, Owen, Cacapa, Coloccini and others – who are not worth their wages – not even close.

And news about the older Liverpool players wanting the club to bring back Owen?

Benetiz has shown he has little sentimentality in football, he just wants to win. And the way the Spanish manager handled Robbie Keane showed that, so if he signed Michael – we’d be very surprised – and for Owen – he would be on the bench every week – well at least on those weeks he’s fit.

Hardly a way to get back into the England side, which we’re sure is still on his mind.

When is the film of this Newcastle meltdown of this season going to be made?

Ashley must have realized he was in the last chance saloon at Newcastle with Shearer, and it seems this last week has all been too much and he wants out – and quickly.

The sale of designated players will now form part of the business plan rightly required by the bankers, and Managing Director Derek Llambias will conduct a series of meetings with both lawyers and financiers this week, with a deadline of this coming Friday to reach agreement.

But if that is true then we hope somebody somewhere (Shearer, Dowie?) is looking after the Newcastle store.

Somebody needs to be working on the multiple tasks that need to be completed – like which players will be announced as up for sale, and who they want to bring in during the summer.

We must have something moving forward his coming week – like real work being done in preparation for next season, which will be upon us before we even know it.

20 comments so far

I don’t believe any of the trouble, apparently at the club at the moment. I do believe however that the story about the finances are true. Any business needs to have insurance that the finances will be available.

If you look at the headlines, none of them are from respected papers. And more importantly: None of them have a quote to verify any of it. The daily mail and the Sun problably have “informers” just about everywhere, and seem to get information like it was UV lights on a sunny day. Plenty of it!

I will not panic until there is an official announcement about all that is going on. From my point of view. Given wednesday I believe Shearer is looking for players and Ashley has commited to bring back NUFC to the Premier league.

He apparently played the remainder of the season with us still battling with an achillies injury. Because of his determination to help us, Newcastle doctors have told him it is impossible he will play in the under 21 championships. Danny Wellbeck out also.

For once I find the basis of this story all too credible. We know 2 things for certain: 1) the banks have got Ashley over a barrel; and 2) Shearer has Ashley over a Barrell. Probably also a 3) Mrs Ashley has Ashley over a barrel (“Come in from playing football clubs, Mikey, your tea’s ready!”

So Big Al has nothing to lose in negotiations – he knows perfectly well that if not now, he will be manager one day. The news of thew sale might be just a tactic to panic Big Al into signing a deal – but it won’t work.

1) JK- Not a great or even good manager, but i honestly think we would have stayed up if he had been able to stay in charge (stability).

2) MA- Should have done due dilligence, his own massive mistake. Some over the top stuff said about him, but most of it spot on. He could’ve avoided alot by sacking Wise and DL, they would’ve understood, he could’ve give them a back hander and the fans would’ve forgiven him for most other things if these two had gone. He also should have got people in to help him when he knew he was making mistakes, he would’ve lost less money and the fans and club wouldn’t be in this mess, his own fault.

3) MO- No respect for him, was always a 1 dimensional player who when he lost his pace lost the only thing he had. He could never smash a long range shot or vary his finishing. He was here for the cash and did not care, Shearer always used to praise MO on MOTD and England games etc, i think even Shearer saw MO for who he really was when he became manager.

4) CH- I fail to see why he was at the club, Spurs were hardly great when he was a coach there, and he was useless as stand in manager, should’ve been sacked and a better coach brought in.

5) Shearer- This is not going to be popular! The man is a legend and did great things for the Toon, i also know he loves the club. But – the worry i have (apart from lack of experience) is that i honestly think Shearer thinks he is bigger than the club (i know he says otherwise), this means i think if we had a player who was good for us and played well, but Shearer didn’t like or get on with then he would drop him, even if it was against the best interests of the club. SBR, wouldn’t do that, he would have put his own feelings aside if the player was playing well for the club, IMO. I don’t mean that in a nasty way about Shearer, just the way i see his personality.

Having said all that, i think he is the only 1 who will be given time by us (the fans), so he may be the only choice as manager. Changing managers all the time is bad, stabiliity (Moyes, Ferguson, Wenger, Benitez, Curbishley (when at Charlton) = success.

Guesswork-so here is so more. Ashley decides to see if Shearer can come up with a miracle to get us back in the Premiership without it costing him any money. Shearer not suprisingly doesnt come up with any such thing in the negotiations. Ashley realises if the negotiations with Shearer break down he is finished at NUFC anyway. Ashley decides to sell. I dont expect Shearer to be appointed unless its by the new owners. Ashley can easily find 20m to repay any overdraft and then tell the bank to hop it- he still has enough money to run Newcastle he just doesnt want to any more.

Firstly Ed great to see you staying on mate. We need this blog more than ever now. What a state our club is in. I for one would love Ashley to crawl back from under the rock he came from but this is hardly the time to be selling the club is it? We should be planning for one of the most important seasons in recent times. We need to bounce straight back and get back in to the premiership & what are we doing? holding our pisser’s with no manager, an owner who wants to sell up & leave, no chairman no voice to the fans and to top it all off the makems have a new billionaire owner & are looking at the likes of steve bruce & manchini for gaffer. The nightmare well & truly continues! All i can hope for is that a consortium are in talks already or if not are lined up who will keep Al on as manager and will pump in enough cash to get us up then pump in enough to keep us in the league & get us back to where we should be. Worrying times though.

I wonder why Shearer has not spoken yet about the negotiations to become manager . I just dont think he will be our manager come the first game of the season .I have a feeling he wanted more transfer funds than Ashley could possibly give him and he said no thanks . I do not belive he was after the reported 4 million a year though . Not after he knows there was so many people laid off at the club . With shearer saying no , Ashley has panicked and put the club up for sale fearing the lynch mob . The big question now is who in there right mind will now come to manage us knowing we are yet again up for sale . if its not to be shearer then i would like Strachan brought in , he has left Celtic and i dont think he has a new club , so would not cost us a fee . He also has experience at managing a big club .

My opinion on two matters: Shearer-so far, not all that impressed. Not from a caoching standpoint, I think he can “coach” the game. But he must also “manage” the game and this is where i feel he is lacking. For me, the only tactic he and his staff got right was his subtitutions in the ‘Boro game. Was it good tactics or dumn luck? Ashley-can’t or won’t make a decision until it is forced on him. He should have been thinking of selling weeks ago or gone through with the sale when it was first on offer months ago. But no. He thought he could get an unrealistic profit on his investment as the world economy was “tanking”. Where was his business acumen?

Isnt this fun? Today I read that Shearer wanted 2 million, 3 million or 4 million ayear to stay on. Aparently Ashley made 10 million available for transfers when we were in the premiership, and 20 million now we’re in the Championship. Ashley wants to sell for anything from 70 to 110 million, depending on who you listen to, then he’s keeping NUFC then selling it.

Johno – Toon – you say “15-20million would easily get us back” – we spent that in the last 2 years – it couldn’t stop us from going down – why would it keep us up?

Tino 11 – There isn’t a single Manager in the prem that would play a good player regardless. If they would – then they shouldn’t be there. Ferguson puts players on the bench when he falls out with them, but they’re still great players. And they learn from it. We need a manager who has the respect of the players – not some clown like JK or a stand in like CH.

It will be interesting to see how many players are happy to take a pay cut to go back to the prem, or are they all going to be tossers like Barton and bleed the club dry?

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health update

I was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer in February 2017 and completed four months of chemotherapy in late July and will continue to have hormone treatment.

The cancer spread in the bones, but after having a number of CATscans last Friday the cancer has been stabilized and as of April 24th, 2018 it has not spread further.

There is no cure for Stage 4 cancer so I will continue to have CATscans and bone scans about every four months to check on the cancer.

It is as it is - I will do my best under the circumstances - it's another challenge.

Ed Harrison

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